Truck



Will/area I L. 0. CULVER AND 1. B. WILLS.

TRUCK.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 20. 19H.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I- anvewtow jaw/J 0 derive, Jame; .6. WZ'ZJJ Patented May18,1920.

L. U. CULVER AND J. B. WILLS.

TRUCK. 1 APPLICATION men 02c. 20, 1918.

1,340,378. Patnted May is, 1920.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

LEWIS 0. CULVER AND JAMES B. WILLS, OF WEST PIT'ISTON, PENNSYLVANIA;SAID WILLS ASSIGNOR T0 SAID CULVER.

TRUCK.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that we, LEWIS O. QULVEI: and. JAMES B. W ILLS, citizens ofthe United States, residing at West Pittston, in the,

county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Trucks, of which the'following is aspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in automobile trucks and moreparticularly to coal trucks, the primary object being to pro- Vide animproved structure whereby the coal may be elevated to be ejected into achute so that the coal may be readily passed from the truck withoutinterfering with pedestrians who might be passing while the truck isbeing unloaded. I

The invention further aims to provide a truck of this character whichwill include an elevator arranged to derive its power from the drivingshaft of the automobile truck so that the coal may be elevated to anydesired height, this height being limited only by the size oftheelevator.

he invention further aims to provide an automobile truck of thischaracter having its coal compartment arranged to form a coal pocketinto which the elevator is placed, the latter being arranged to collapseand be held in inoperative position within the pocket when theelevator-is not'in use.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device of thischaracter which .consists of comparatively few parts and is simple inconstruction, but durable and well adapted to withstand the rough usageto which devices of this character are ordinarily subjected.

For a full description of the invention and the advantages and meritsthereof, reference is to be had to the following description andaccompanying drawings, in

- which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the device constructed inaccordance with our inven-' tion, parts being shown in section.

ig. 2 is a transverse section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. s

Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a frigmentary section taken on .the line 44 of The chassis ofthe truck .is of ordinary construction but by referring to Fig. 1 itwill be noted that the body comprises two separate compartments 1 and 2with which Specification of Letters Patent.

' the coal is received.

Patented May 18, 1920.

Application filed December 20, 1918. Serial No. 267,730.

These compartments are sufficiently spaced apart to form a relativelywide space between the compartments and this space is utilized as a coalpocket 3 shown to advantage in Fig. 2 of the drawing. This coal pocketis constructed so that it has sloping inclined sides 4 and its bottom iscurved as shown whereby the coal may be readily removed in a mannerwhich will presently appear. The ends ofthe compartments 1 and 2'havetheir end walls provided with openings normally closed by sliding doors5 each of which is provided with a lift rode connected to a pivotedlever 7, the'latter having a handle 8 whereby the operator may swing thelever to actuate the lift rod for opening either door for permitting thecoal to pass from the compartments into the coal pockets 3. The driveshaft 9 of the .automob1le is provided with a relatively long sleeve 10which projects through the pocket 3 near the lower end there-' a clutchof and this sleeve is provided with element 11 adapted to be engaged bya clutch element 12 carried by the drive shaft 9 so that when the twoclutch elements are in engagement the sleeve 10 will be rotated.

An elevator frame is also arranged within the pocket 3 and this frame isconstructed so that it will be collapsible as shown. This framecomprises two pairs of pivoted arms 13 and 14, the arms 13 being joinedtogether at their lower ends and pivoted on the shaft pivotallyconnected to the two shafts 15 and 16, each of the arms 13 of one pairbeing connected to one of the shafts at one end thereof and each of thearms 14 beingconnected to one of the shafts at the opposite end thereof.Upwardly extending arms 17 and 18, also arranged in pairs are connectedat their lower ends to the shafts 15 and 16 at the points at which theupper ends of the lower arms 13 and 14 are connected, the ends of thearms-being overlapped as shown to form a neat and eflic'ient connection.The upper ends of the arms 17 and 18 converge and the arms in each pairare connected together and pivotally iomed to a -central cross shaft 19.It will be readily seen that this construction provides a frame whichmay be readily collapsed to assume the position shown y dotted lines inFig. 2 and which may be raised to operative positionthese members isconnected to one of the cables 23 both of which are trained over thepulley 23 and wound about a drum 24. A shaft 25 is suitably mounted onone of the compartments 2and the drum 24 is fixed on the shaft 25 andthe latter is provided with cranks 26 which may be manually actuated forrotating the drum so that a pull will be exerted on the cables wherebythe link 22 will draw the shafts 15 and 16-toWard each other to theposition shown by full lines in Fig. 2 for moving the elevator tooperative position.

A locking device is employed for maintaining the structure in thisposition and the same includes the pivoted latch members 27, a pair ofwhich are pivotally mounted as at 28 on each wall of each compartment.The terminals of the latch members are shaped to form hooks 29 adaptedto en age theshafts 15 and 16 as shown clearly in ig. 3 of the drawing.A pair of lifting elements 30 is provided for each pair of latches, eachlifting member being pivotally connected to one of thelatches as clearlyshown in Fig. 3. Each pair of lift members is joined together by a pin31 upon which is mounted a roller 32. A slidable bar 33 is mounted toslide in supporting members 34 and one of these is provided on each sideof the device as shown. Each bar is provided with cam edges 35 overwhich the roller 32 is adapted to move as the bar is reciprocated. Thiscam edge on each bar is shaped so that the roller is received in arelatively deep recess when the latches are in locked position and whenthe bar is reciprocated in either direction, the roller will pass overraised portions which form the cams whereby a pull is exerted on thelift members 30 to raise the latches out of engagement with the shafts15 and 16 thus unlocking the structure and permitting the frame tocollapse. A'hofpp'er 37 is secured, through the medium 0 arms 38, to theupper portion of the frame and this hopper isdisposed to receive thecoal from the buckets when the latter are dumped at the top of the.elevator,

the latter moving in the direction indicated it will be dumped into thehopper and the latter has one open end disposed to eject the coal into aconveniently located chute which, of course, will conduct the coal tothe point of delivery and which, by virtue of the height of the hopperwill be considerably above the sidewalk and therefore will. notinterfere with the movement of pedestrians. Itwill be obvious that thearms 13, 14, 17 and 18 may be'increased in length to make the elevatorconsiderably higher if necessary in this manner the chute may be raisedconsiderably higher.

Near the end of each shaft 15 and 16 is a roller 39 and these rollersare adapted to travel over arcuate-trackways 40 which are joined to thecompartments 1 and 2 by the supporting members 41 and which hav1e theirends curved upwardly as shown in Fig. 2 to provide seats 43 at theterminals of the trackways for receiving the rollers when the elevatorframe is collapsed to the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Thisis the position that the device assumes when in operative position andit will be obvious that the entire elevator mechanism may be receivedwithin the coal pocket so that it will be inconspicuous and will notrequire much head room. It will be noted that this arrangement does notoccupy much space and doesnot detract,-but very little, from the capacitof the truck for the reason that the coa pocket and the space betweenthe compartments may be filled with the coalwhile the truck is intransit. This coal, in the coal pocket, of course, will be -might beconsidered to be the preferred or approved form of our invention. Wedesire it to be understood that we may make such changes inconstruction, combination and arrangement ofparts, material,dimensions,'

et cetera as may prove expedient and fall within the scope of theappended claims.

Having thus fully described'our invention what we claim as'new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A truck comprising a body having spaced apart compartments, acollapsible frame mounted in the space between said compartments andvcomprising a. pair of lower and a pan of upper arms, each arm beingpivoted to each of the adjacent arms thereto, a pair of shafts passingthrough the lower ends of said upper arms and through the upper ends ofsaid lower arms and adapted to move toward and away from each other,means provided for holding said collapsible frame in an elevatedposition, means provided for lowering and elevating said frame, andconveying means passing around said frame.

2. A truck comprising a body having spaced apart campartments, acollapsible frame' mounted in the space between said compartments andcomprising a pair of lower and a pair of upper arms, each arm beingpivotedto each of the adjacent arms thereto, a pair of shafts passingthrough the lower ends of said upper arms and through the upper ends ofsaid lower arms and adapted to move toward and away from each other,manually operated means connected to said shafts whereby they may bedrawn toward each other to raise the said frame, locking elementsmounted on the body and adapted to engage said shafts to releasablymaintain them in operative positions, said locking elements comprising apair of pivoted latch members, the latch members being spaced at theirends to form hooks adapted to engage said shafts, means for releasingsaid hooks from said shafts and conveying means passing around saidframe.

3. A truck comprising a body having spaced apart compartments, acollapsible frame mounted in the space between said compartments andcomprising a pair of lower and a pair of upper arms, each arm beingpivoted to each of the adjacent arms thereto, a pair of.shafts passingthroughthe lower ends of said upper arms and through the upper ends ofsaid lower arms and adapted to move toward and away from each other,locking means provided for engaging said shafts so as to hold said framein an elevated position, a'drum mount-- ed upon a shaft provided betweensaid compartments, cables adapted to be wound around said drum, pulleysprovided between said shafts, said cables passin around said pulleys andengaging said sha ts, means for rotating said drum whereby saidcollapsible frame may be lowered or elevated and conveying means passingaround said frame.

being pivoted to each of the adjacent arms thereto, a pair of shaftspassing through the lower ends of said upper armsand through the upperends of said lower arms and adapted to move forward and away from eachother, a drum mounted upon -a shaft provided between said compartments,pul-- 'leys provided between said shafts, cables provided upon saiddrum, said cables adapted to pass around said drum and said pulleys,said cables fixedly attached to said first mentioned shafts foroperating same when said drum is'rotated, whereby the same may beelevated or lowered, a locking element pivotally mounted upon the body,said looking element comprising pivoted latch members, said latchmembers-being spaced at their ends so as to form hooks, said hooksadaptedto' engage said shafts so as to hold same in an elevatedposition, means for releasing said locking elements from said shaft andconveying means passing around said frame.

5. A truck comprising abody having spaced apart compartments, acollapsible frame mounted in the space between said compartments andcomprising a pair of the upper ends of said lower arms and adapted tomove toward and away from each other, means provided for holding saidcollapsible frame in an elevated position,

and means provided for lowering -and.;elevating said frame, sprocketwheels provided at the conjunction of said arms, an endless chain adated to train on said sprocket wheels, and a carrying means provided uponsaid chain. I I

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

- LEWIS, o. CULVER.

JAMES B. WILLS.

Witnesses:

G. B. KNIGHT, WM. WILLS.

